Paperback: 156 pages Publisher: CWM Publishing; 1 edition (February 20, 2014 AD) ISBN-10: 0991232917 ISBN-13: 978-0991232918
Sleep Paralysis – What it is and How to Stop it
I have posted the article Sleep paralysis in the Bible. Thus, when Chris White published Sleep Paralysis – What it is and How to Stop it, interest was piqued (see end of article for a list on his other books).
“Chris is an author, filmmaker and host of several online radio programs on various subjects. He is also the director of the internet radio station called The Revelations Radio Network. He produces documentaries and short videos for educational purposes.”
Chris White, “organized what may be the largest survey about sleep paralysis ever performed in order to try to understand more about the phenomenon. You can still see the form that more than 1,200 people filled out at the survey website www.SleepSurvey.com.”
Some of the topics within the book are:
What is sleep paralysis? including “The mainstream explanation” and what’s wrong with it.
The spiritual causes of sleep paralysis including cultural beliefs about it.
How to stop sleep paralysis including advice for people of all beliefs.
FAQ
Sleep paralysis stories submitted by individuals.
So, what is sleep paralysis:
“According to one definition, sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which people, either upon falling asleep or awakening, temporarily experience the inability to move, and it is often associated with terrifying sensations. There is such a wide range of things that people experience in sleep paralysis that it would be difficult to detail each specific thing; though visions, sounds, smells and physical contact have all been reported. Some cases can be considered very mild, while others quite severe and frightening, but in almost every case there is some form of paralysis (the inability to move).
In addition to the paralysis, nearly all of the experiencers report the feeling that there is an evil or menacing presence in the room, even if they don’t actually see anything there. This feeling has been called ‘felt presence’ by the scientific community…”
Chris White references mild cases which “usually lasts for less than a minute and occurs only a few times in a person’s life”:
“Recent studies have shown that 6.2% of the population has experienced this at least once, though there is reason to believe that the numbers are much higher than this. Other studies have shown that almost 30% of a randomly sampled student population has experienced sleep paralysis.”
At this point, let us come to the point of full disclosure (or as full as I care to divulge personal info) as I experienced a mild case or, a mild-mild case of sleep paralysis. In fact, it was not until years and years later that I heard someone speaking on the subject and when they mentioned the feeling like something sat on your bed, I thought, “Wow, that’s what it was!”
The mild case occurred in my life BC and all that such a life brought along with it. At the time, a house mate and I told each other that we felt that there was a presence in the house. I was taking a nap one day and felt the bed give—something sat on your bed—and thought that my house mate had laid down next to me. However, as the pillow I was laying on curved upwards since my head pushed down the middle of it, I could not see next to me. I attempted to life my head to look but could not move. Being such a mellow guy, I recall simply thinking, “Well, I can’t do anything about it so, I might as well enjoy the experience” and I do not remember anything after that. Well, I now realize two things: 1) there may be many people who have experiences that they enjoy, in some form or another and 2) enjoying them, much less seeking them out, is utter folly and dangerous—it is tantamount to a litigious invitation.
My house mate also had a mild sleep paralysis experience, but of a very different sort. She relates that she was sleeping on her back and awoke to feel something pressing down on her chest, like something sitting thereon. She felt something tightening around her neck and attempted to call to me and reach out but could not move nor speak.
As for the scientific community’s view of sleep paralysis, Chris White notes:
“Let’s take the studies about the threat activated vigilance system and the amygdala. Using neuroimaging techniques, scientists were able to determine that the amygdala was active during sleep paralysis. That’s pretty much it. From there they made the claim that this activation of the fear center of the brain was the cause of the hallucinations…
I hope to show you that the belief that these are not hallucinations at all but something real, is a view that can be logically, even scientifically, defended.”
An anecdote from the Sleep paralysis stories section of the book has someone noting the following:
“I read that the hallucination are caused by the person panicking when they realize they cannot move, but my experiences were the opposite; each time, I saw he so-called hallucination, and when I tried to react, it was then that I realized I could not move – not the other way around. None of it seemed right to me, but I didn’t know what to think, so I tried to ignore it.”
In the “Mankind’s claims about the spirit world” section, he notes:
“…spirit beings were known to be untrustworthy according to those that interacted with them. They could apparently appear in any form that they chose, something that is true in sleep paralysis as well. More interesting than this though is that they often used this ability to deceive people into doing various immoral things, or simply to cause fear.”
He mentions, for example, the Ouija board (about which we wrote in the article Is the Ouija board dangerous?):
“It’s just cardboard and ink. It has no power of its own. It is simply a vehicle for a human to ask for contact with spirits in their hearts, even if they don’t actually say it with their mouths. When you sit down and play with a Ouija board, get a tarot card reading, or one of several other activities, what you are saying in your heart is: ‘spirits, I want you to be here. I want to contact you.’ You are giving them the only thing they need – permission.”
This “permission” is that to which I was referring as litigious invitation.
As for stopping it, the book spends most of its time here—via Chris White’s writing as well as within the Sleep Paralysis Stories section:
“There are essentially two types of stopping sleep paralysis. The first type is stopping sleep paralysis in the middle of an event. This is especially helpful for those that are used to sleep paralysis experiences lasting a long time, or if there is sexual violation occurring, but really any sleep paralysis event can be cut short using the methods laid out. The second type is stopping sleep paralysis from happening altogether, to be free from sleep paralysis for good.”
And the astonishing aspect of this book is that it claims to be able to show you how to stop sleep paralysis from happening altogether, to be free from sleep paralysis for good.
Here is a list of Chris White’s books:
Sleep Paralysis – What it is and How to Stop it
Mystery Babylon – When Jerusalem Embraces The Antichrist: An Exposition of Revelation 18 and 19
Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?: A Refutation of Seventh Day Adventism and the Hebrew Roots Movement – audio and Kindle
